Super Bowl LIII is in the rearview mirror. The NFL draft is still two and a half months away. Still, even in the slowest periods on the NFL calendar, there is plenty to discuss. With that in mind, here’s the inside slant on three notable storylines.

‘Let your light shine’

Shortly after agreeing to become Bears defensive coordinator last month, Chuck Pagano began reaching out to his new players. Just a few texts to introduce himself, to quickly connect, to express his eagerness to get to work when the team reconvenes at Halas Hall in the spring.

As the replies came buzzing back in, Pagano felt another surge of excitement, convinced right away that he was uniting with exactly the kind of confident and hungry group he so badly wants to coach.

“We know the talent level of this roster,” Pagano said. “The football character, the measurables, the talent. We all see that. But really you’re looking for what makes a man tick inside. And (the Bears) have done a phenomenal job of finding guys who love football and have high football character.

“We always talk about like versus love. The guys who like it don’t last long. The guys who are interested? They don’t last long. But it appears to me, based on the texts I received back, that we’ve got a bunch of guys who love football and are committed. And that’s why they’re so successful.”

The defense Pagano is inheriting came up with an NFL-best 36 takeaways last season and led the NFC with 50 sacks. No team allowed fewer points during the regular season either. Four Bears defenders — edge rusher Khalil Mack, defensive lineman Akiem Hicks, safety Eddie Jackson and cornerback Kyle Fuller — were selected to the Pro Bowl.

Just like that, a team that lost 45 games over the previous four seasons established itself as a playoff squad and seemingly threw open a window in which the Bears can realistically compete for a Super Bowl invitation several times over the next four or five years.

On the surface, it might seem like Pagano’s biggest task — in 2019 anyway — is to simply not screw this up. If this defense can stay healthy and united, it should again be positioned to be among the league’s best, widening the margin of error for quarterback Mitch Trubisky and an evolving offense. But when Pagano spoke confidently last month about the Bears having an opportunity to “be the best in the history of the game,” it became clear that he knew how to push the right buttons and that he’s determined to challenge this defense and lift it to the next level.

That won’t be easy. Vic Fangio’s exit to Denver is significant and his absence will be felt. At last month’s Pro Bowl, while expressing his eagerness to connect with Pagano, Jackson spoke glowingly about Fangio’s coaching style and preparation.

“It’s just his energy when he’s in the room,” Jackson said. “His presence in general is special. I learned so much from him. I told him and Coach Ed (Donatell) that without them, I wouldn’t be the player I am now. For real. I respect those guys that much.”

In particular, Jackson emphasized Fangio’s knack for consistently making the right calls to put the Bears in the best position to succeed.

“You would see that play out,” Jackson said. “We’d be at practice or breaking down film and he’d give you the call and explain it and then you’d see it work perfectly and understand why it worked perfectly and it’s like ‘Oh, OK.’

“I compare Vic to Coach (Nick) Saban all the time just with how smart he is and how well he really knows the offense we’re playing. The way he breaks things down detail for detail is hard to find.”

Pagano will have to earn his new players’ trust. But his charisma is well-documented. Around the NFL, the 58-year-old coach is well-respected, well-liked and has a reputation for being able to easily connect with players.

Bears fans will quickly get used to Pagano’s approach. The new defensive coordinator will talk often about his desire to learn more about who his players are; where they come from; what they’ve been through; and what makes them tick. Pagano sees the NFL grind as “a brotherhood.” He’ll remind his defense constantly to be smart, tough and together. And “energy” and “tempo” will become buzzwords at Halas Hall.

Pagano’s first mantra for the Bears defense: “Let your light shine.”

He wants players to understand their strengths. And he wants to give them the freedom to use those strengths, an objective Fangio mastered.

Pagano already understands this defense is energized by its swagger. And the new Bears coordinator wants his players to use their self-belief as fuel, to “live it, breathe it, every single day.”

“I believe in swag,” Pagano said. “I believe in confidence. I believe in letting guys play and not making them robots.”

Before long, when the introductory texts turn into on-field interactions, Pagano will push to convert the eagerness into production as quickly as possible.

The Kareem Hunt debate

David Eulitt / Getty Images

Former Chiefs running back Kareem Hunt has signed with the Browns, giving them a potential difference-maker but also a potential headache.

Former Chiefs running back Kareem Hunt has signed with the Browns, giving them a potential difference-maker but also a potential headache. (David Eulitt / Getty Images)

An avalanche of Kareem Hunt headlines began Monday right as the Browns announced they had signed the talented running back. This, in the world of 2019 content generation, is a gold mine. A high-profile story involving a troubled athlete, a videotaped incident of violence and now, predictably, a chance at redemption.

A year ago, Hunt engaged in a heated argument in a Cleveland hotel, ultimately shoving and kicking a woman. Shortly after surveillance footage of that altercation surfaced via TMZ in November, the Chiefs determined Hunt had lied to them about the incident and cut him.

Now? Hunt is getting his invitation to play again in the NFL.

For anyone who wants to pick a lane, there are many to choose from, so many opinions to present, or in many cases, to blare into a megaphone.

There were arguments to be made that the Browns had quickly demolished all the feel-good vibes they had built up during a surprising seven-win 2018 season.

There were declarations that the NFL remains callous, insincere and without a social conscience.

There was Hall of Famer Tony Dungy expressing his belief in second chances for those who are repentant and show a genuine desire to grow.

And in Cleveland, longtime Browns beat writer Mary Kay Cabot acknowledged a best-case possibility that Hunt could use his new opportunity to become a better man and, potentially, a role model by owning his transgressions and maturing through them.

In discussions like this, it has become increasingly difficult to distinguish genuine and understandable disgust from phony moral outrage. But it’s all out there on the buffet line. And, in an ideal world — far, far away from the volatile and hyper-reactive arguments on social media — situations like Hunt’s should serve as fodder for important nuanced discussions that need to be had on significant societal issues.

There will always be a lock-him-up-and-throw-away-the-key-crowd, fuming critics who are certain Hunt should be banished from football and never allowed to resume his career. And on the opposite end, there will be a vocal army of blind loyalists — particularly in Cleveland now — who will look past Hunt’s biggest flaws and ugliest action as long as he has the talent to lift their team to new heights.

It’s legitimate to argue that while Hunt was never charged in connection with the incident in question, the visuals of him being enraged enough to shove a 19-year-old woman and later kick her while she’s on the ground are repugnant.

At the same time, it’s fair for others to counter that while the Hunt video is unpleasant, it’s not as shocking or stomach-turning as the Ray Rice footage or the Joe Mixon footage or the details of Greg Hardy’s domestic-violence episode.

Others still will openly wonder whether Hunt is truly capable of reform, questioning whether the Browns and the NFL and the public at large should focus more on his punishment or more on his rehabilitation.

And that is precisely why in Chicago this week, there were those who reacted to Hunt’s deal with the Browns with a fist pump — Cleveland’s problem now — and others who felt disappointed that the Bears didn’t do everything it took to acquire an ultra-talented 23-year-old running back who would increase the team’s Super Bowl chances.

For the Bears, Hunt was never a “must-have” commodity on the 2019 offseason wish list. He was a luxury item with a large “Warning” label.

Speaking strictly from a football perspective, Hunt would have been a nice addition to an evolving offense needing firepower. Through 27 career games, Hunt has 2,984 yards from scrimmage and 25 touchdowns. He led the league in rushing as a rookie in 2017. And an argument can be made that he might have won a Super Bowl in his second season with the Chiefs had his reprehensible actions in that argument with the woman not surfaced via surveillance footage that TMZ got its hands on.

When the Chiefs coaching staff and front office learned Hunt had lied to them about that incident, he was swiftly terminated — ejected from a Pro Bowl season and launched into unemployment with little certainty about how, when or where his football career might continue.

The only thing that was certain was that, eventually, Hunt would get his second chance.

Somewhere. Somehow. That much was inevitable.

Bears coach Matt Nagy worked closely with Hunt in Kansas City in 2017. And just last month, not long after he had reached out to check in on Hunt, Nagy described the running back as “a really, really good kid.” When Bears general manager Ryan Pace didn’t slam the door on evaluating Hunt as a backfield upgrade, it became fair to reason that the team had interest in at least considering bringing Hunt to Chicago.

“There are a lot of things off the field that he’s got to take care of,” Pace said. “Matt knows Kareem. I don’t know Kareem. Those things are all going to play out.”

As it turns out, the Browns wound up being the most interested team — or at least the most aggressive — in going after Hunt. General manager John Dorsey, who drafted Hunt two years ago while in Kansas City, found a suitable risk-reward equation to speed up a reunion. Dorsey did so even with Hunt still stuck on the commissioner’s exempt list, even with an NFL investigation into Hunt’s behavior not finished, even with a likely suspension still not decided on.

In the first chapter of Hunt’s return story, the conversation will center around the baggage he brings with him. But going forward, Dorsey and the Browns are the only ones who actually have to weigh that baggage. So how heavy will it ultimately be?

Dorsey already has vocalized his intent to operate with a zero-tolerance policy, ready to send Hunt packing if his off-field conduct again becomes troubling. Yet if Hunt returns to the form he showed during his first two seasons — basically good for 110 yards and a touchdown every time out — the Browns might have just secured another catalyst for their resurgence. And it’s easy to envision Hunt helping to propel the team’s first playoff run since 2002.

For Dorsey, those dice were worth rolling.

The Browns will have to withstand the initial wave of public backlash that comes with signing a player who has shown he is capable of behaving in such an ugly manner. But they are also betting Hunt will mature as a young man and produce as a running back enough to change the narrative.

Save the date

Photos of every Bears touchdown scored during the 2018 season.

We still have more than two months before the NFL releases next season’s schedule. Which means it’ll be a while yet before we know the Bears’ full 2019 itinerary. But already breadcrumbs are being dropped.

Last month we learned the Bears will again be part of the league’s International Series, playing their road game against the Raiders in London. That game will almost certainly come sometime between the last weekend of September and the first weekend of November and present an overseas challenge for Matt Nagy’s team against an inferior but feisty opponent.

Reports this week also have the Bears penciled in for another Thanksgiving Day affair against the Lions in Detroit.

Meanwhile, early word inside league circles also indicates the Bears could be given Super Bowl champion-like treatment to open next season, in line to host the league’s Thursday night season opener on Sept. 5. At Soldier Field. Against the Packers.

As if the anticipation for a promising 2019 season wasn’t already going to be amped up for Bears fans, the possibility of a daylong party by Lake Michigan followed by a prime-time rivalry game should only add to the electricity. And while that scheduling decision would go against league protocol, excluding the defending Super Bowl champion from the kickoff game for the first time in 15 years, the NFL’s desire to celebrate its 100th season by opening with the league’s oldest rivalry makes perfect sense.

That game also would offer Nagy and his players another opportunity to test themselves in a bright-lights, big-stage affair. The Bears were terrific in such moments during the regular season last year, most notably in dominant Sunday night victories over the Vikings (25-20 in Week 11) and Rams (15-6 in Week 14).

On the way to 12 wins and an NFC North title, the Bears handled last season’s schedule quite well. They went 3-1 in prime time, gutted out a 23-16 win over the Lions on Thanksgiving and won three division games in a span of 12 days, matching their NFC North win total from the previous 48 months.

Nagy and his coaching staff deserve credit for having their team consistently well-prepared for such tests. Players, meanwhile, deserve praise for showing a special ability to quickly reset, refocus and lock in on the next task time after time.

Last season’s Bears, of course, had a last-place schedule, a benefit that offered games against the Buccaneers and Giants. But it’s worth noting that the Bears split those games and had an identical 1-1 record against the two teams that would later meet in the Super Bowl.

Next season, the Bears’ status as division champions will force them to make a jump up in class for two games with a road trip to play the Rams and a home game against the Saints. That ever-so-slight degree-of-difficulty spike shouldn’t be taken for granted. It’ll present an added challenge for a franchise attempting to make consecutive playoff appearances for just the second time since 1991.

Still, if last season’s surprise resurgence is any indication, the Bears are properly wired to handle whatever the schedule throws at them.